Today’s global market meets the ever
changing needs of customers and employees. Companies focus on
continuously improving their products, services, processes, and talent.
Change management keeps these improvements on track. Change management
does more than just implement new tools or projects. Change management
creates and orchestrates key roles, processes and tools that each
discipline involved uses to effectively manage the people involved in,
and affected by the change(www.changemanagement.com).

Change management includes all
disciplines of an organization. Broken down into four categories:
business management, strategic planning, human resources, and systems
management; a breakdown of these disciplines follows:

BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

Change Management Team
- A change management team
is critical to managing any change in a business. Identifying structures
roles and responsibilities will ensure a greater success rate for change
an organization is implementing. This change management team will apply
a change management methodology, formulate the strategy, develop plans
for moving change forward through people, and supporting those people.
The change management team should consist of members from executive and
senior management, middle management, a project team, and project
support people.

Resistance Management
– A proactive approach to plan a response to, and identify potential
resistance points. Identify ways to manage and avoid resistance. Include
all levels of an organization in the resistance management plan.

Project Management – “The
application of modern management techniques and systems to the execution
of a project from start to finish, to achieve predetermined objectives
of scope, quality, time and cost, to the equal satisfaction of those
involved. “

Product Positioning
- Product positioning
involves creating a unique, consistent, and recognized customer
perception about a firm’s offering and image. Position a product or
service on the basis of an attitude or benefit, use or application,
user, class, price, or level of quality. It targets a product for
specific market segments and product needs at specific prices. Use many
different ways to position the same product.

Configuration management- Configuration management (CM) is the
detailed recording and updating of information that describes an
enterprise's computer systems and networks, including all hardware and
software components. Such information typically includes the versions
and updates that have been applied to installed software packages and
the locations and network addresses of hardware devices.

Business Analyst - An individual who
analyzes the operations of a department or functional unit with the
purpose of developing a general systems solution to the problem that may
or may not require automation. The business analyst, who is often part
of a user department, can provide insights into its operation for the
systems analyst who reports to the information systems department.

Trials & Tribulations of a Business
Systems Analyst - This
article speaks to the change that occurs when a person moves from
production into a business analyst role. This also illustrates how the
BA changes the way client business is done.

Strategic Planning –Strategic
planning determines where an organization is going over the next year or
more, and how it's going to get there. The process is organization-wide,
or focused on a major function such as a division, department or other
major function. (The descriptions on this page assume that strategic
planning is focused on the organization.)

Strategic Analysis -
This activity
includes conducting some sort of scan, or review, of the organization's
environment (for example, of the political, social, economic and
technical environment). Planners carefully consider various driving
forces in the environment, for example, increasing competition, changing
demographics, etc. Planners also look at the various strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities and threats (an acronym for this activity is
SWOT) regarding the organization.

Action
Planning - Action planning lays out
how to accomplish the strategic goals. Action planning includes
specifying objectives, and specific results with each strategic goal.
Reaching a strategic goal involves accomplishing a set of objectives
along the way. An objective is a goal, but on a smaller scale.

Risk
Management - The MOF
Risk Management Discipline applies proven risk-management techniques to
the challenges that operations staff members face every day. There are
many models, frameworks, and processes for managing risks-all of which
discuss planning for an uncertain future. However, the MOF Risk
Management Discipline offers greater value than many others through its
key principles, consistent terminology, structured and repeatable
six-step process, and a recognition that the MOF Risk Management
Discipline needs to be an integral part of the overall operations
framework.

Tactical planning
deals primarily with the implementation phase of the planning process.
Tactical planning turns strategy into reality, Tactical planning usually
has a 1-2 year time horizon, and Tactical planning is tightly integrated
with the annual budget process.

Product Development - The Discipline of Product Management
- This article defines the
roles of responsibility for each person within the team. The article
accounts for all services, goods, or other things offered for sale by an
organization to be a product.

Market Sensing
- Anticipating Market Problems with Jim Holland - This article speaks to the planning
portion of product management. Essentially, a company can utilize
market-sensing tools to understand which way the market is trending.
This analysis can assist in a successful launch into the market.

Tactical Plan
- The tactical plan demonstrates how the strategic plan executes. The
tactics are listed within a comprehensive Gantt chart which shows
exactly what will be done and when, department by department.

Supply Chain Manager
- Supply chain
management (SCM) is the process of planning, implementing, and
controlling the operations of the supply chain as efficiently as
possible. Supply Chain Management spans all movement and storage of raw
materials, work-in-process inventory, and finished goods from
point-of-origin to point-of-consumption. Supply chain management flows can be
divided into three main flows:

Managing the Change in Supply Chain
Management Initiatives - This article speaks to how supply chain
initiatives are only successful to the rate of thirty percent. This
article also addresses the J Curve effect when dealing with the supply
chain.

Six Sigma
- A management philosophy developed by Motorola emphasizing extremely
high objectives, collecting data, and analyzing results to a fine degree
as a way to reduce defects in products and services. The Greek letter
sigma is used to denote variation from a standard. Six Sigma
organizations measure how many defects are in a process, and
systematically eliminate them. In order for a company to achieve Six
Sigma, production cannot include more than 3.4 defects per million
opportunities. An opportunity - defined as a chance for nonconformance.

Integrated Logistics Support (ILS) -
The management and technical
process of supportability and logistic support considerations integrated
into the design, and taken into account throughout the life cycle of a
systems/equipment, and by which all elements of logistic support are
planned, acquired, tested, and provided in a timely and cost-effective
manner. See also combined logistic support.

Recruitment
– Defined as sourcing workers to fill vacancies, or enrolling new
members. Employment recruitment includes: verifying the vacancy exists;
drawing up a job specification; finding candidates; selecting them by
interviewing and other means such as: conducting a psychometric test;
and making a job offer. Effective recruitment achieves high
organizational performance and minimizes labor turnover. Employees are
recruited either externally or internally.

HR Management
-
Change management skills are a key part of the job for most Human
Resources practitioners, according to a study by PersonnelToday's
sister publication, Employment
Review.

“ More than four-fifths (83%) of the HR practitioners taking
part said their organisation had undertaken initiatives requiring
change management skills in the previous two years, with most
reporting multiple change initiatives.

In
all, the 93 respondents who reported major changes within their
organisation had been involved in 659 separate initiatives - an
average of seven each in 24 months.

Although few organisations (17%) had someone in their HR department
devoted full time to change management, most (53%) had one or more
practitioners with recognised expertise in the subject.

The
survey found that the HR function was most commonly involved in
change management programmes at the planning stage (46%) - once a
decision to go ahead had been made, but before it was more widely
announced.

At a
further four out of 10 organisations (40%) taking part in the
survey, HR was Involved earlier - in initiating change and before a
decision was made on whether or not to proceed.

Just
10% were not involved until the implementation stage, and only 4%
played no part in change.”

Culture and Change Management
- A form of organizational transformation that is, at times, a radical
and fundamental form of change. It involves the changing of basic
values, norms, and beliefs among stakeholders in order to improve
organizational performance. Companies today understand that improved
processes can lead to better performance also need to understand
cultural barriers that may exist that keep change from taking place.
Unless companies identify and repair cultural barriers along with
process barriers true organizational transformation cannot take place

Training plan- The training plan details
the knowledge necessary for change to be successful, and the steps to
overcome any knowledge gaps that exist. Training covers both the
transition state (what do you need to know to be successful during
the change) and the future state (what do you need to know to be
successful after the implementation). One note - training is
effective for building knowledge and ability, but should not be relied
upon for building awareness and desire to change.

Communicating Change -
The communication plan
identifies the messages about the change delivered through the
organization. These include both the business messages (why the
organization is undertaking the change, risks of not making the change,
etc.) and the personal messages (how the change impact's a person’s
day-to-day work). Communication plans should 1) take into account the
preferred senders of change messages (hint: there are two); 2) customize
messages based on what each specific audience cares about (senior
leaders care about much different things than front-line sponsors); 3)
utilize a number of different channels (face-to-face is preferred, but
be sure to use varied channels); and 4) repeat messages a number of
times (don't assume employees will hear what you are saying the first
time).

Communicating Change
- Change management often comes
with missteps, and poor communication is usually the reason behind those
failures, according to Communication: The Foundation for Successful HR
Program Implementation, a paper by the Hay Group, an HR consulting firm
in Philadelphia. Some of the pitfalls and suggested remedies include the
following:

Expectations are not managed.
If someone is brought in with the purpose of changing and improving
HR, expectations can vary widely, especially on the timeline of how
fast things will change. Miscommunication or no communication can
lead to disappointment if change happens too slowly or too quickly.

The
wrong messengers are used.
Employees tend to trust information from managers, the Hay Group
found. Understanding the organization’s culture will dictate who the
best messenger for change is—the manager, the senior executive team
or HR.

Communication is too sudden.
Leaders need to prepare employees for program changes, allow time
for the message to sink in and give employees an opportunity to
provide feedback before a change is initiated. This tactic also
extends to managers who should be included in the beginning stages
of the plan if they are expected to implement changes and
communicate the changes to employees.

Communication is not aligned with business realities.
“Messages may sugarcoat or not truly address the reasons for the
change,” according to the Hay Group report. Messages should be
honest if they are to be accepted by employees, and that includes
the reasons behind the change and the projected outcomes.

Communication is too narrow.
If the communication focuses too much on detail and technicalities
and doesn’t put the change into the overall context of the
organization’s goals, it will fail to resonate with employees.
“Messages must be well considered, concise, consistent and
ubiquitous,” according to the Hay Group.

Organizational Development
- Major Roles during Change
and Capacity Building - The
process of organizational change includes a variety of key roles. These
roles are filled by various individuals or groups at various times
during the change process. Individuals or groups can fill more than one
role.

Change Initiator - It is conventional wisdom
among organizational development consultants that successful change
is often provoked by a deep “hurt” or crisis in the organization,
for example, dramatic reduction in sales, loss of a key leader in
the organization, warnings from a major investor, or even actions of
a key competitor. It is not uncommon then that someone inside the
organization reacts to that deep hurt and suggests the need for a
major change effort. Often the person who initiates the change is
not the person who becomes the primary change agent.

Change Agent - The change agent is the person
responsible for organizing and coordinating the overall change
effort. The change agent role can be filled by different people at
different times during the project. For example, an outside
consultant might be the first change agent. After the project plan
has been developed and begins implementation, the change agent might
be an implementation team comprised of people from the organization.
If the change effort stalls out, the change agent might be a top
leader in the organization who intercedes to ensure the change
process continues in a timely fashion.

Champion for Change - Change efforts often
require a person or group who continues to build and sustain strong
enthusiasm about the change. This includes reminding everyone of why
the change is occurring in the first place, the many benefits that
have come and will come from the change process. The champion might
be the same person as the change agent at various times in the
project.

Sponsor of Change - Usually, there is a one key
internal person or department that is officially the “sponsor,” or
official role responsible for coordinating the change process. In
large organizations, that sponsor often is a department, such as
Human Resources, Strategic Planning or Information Technology. In
smaller organizations, the sponsor might be a team of senior leaders
working to ensure that the change effort stays on schedule and is
sustained by ongoing provision of resources and training.

Leadership, Supervision and
Delegation - In this
Field Guide, leadership is defined as setting direction and
influencing people to follow that direction. A person can lead
themselves, other individuals, other groups or an entire
organization.

Supervision is guiding the
development and productivity of people in the organization.
Effective supervisors are able to achieve goals by guiding the work
of other people – by delegating.

Incident management
- Principal roles and
responsibilities for incident management are defined according to a
company’s best practices. According to Microsoft; “organizations might
need to combine some roles, depending on organizational size,
organizational structure, and the underlying service level agreements
existing between the IT department and the business it serves.” This
was true for a company that I worked for as an IT Administrator. In
this role we had to combine our services for the network to one
centralized call center and server support center. When we combined
these roles like Microsoft, we also developed roles that are required
for incident management. As with Microsoft, it is important to
remember that these are roles rather than job descriptions. The roles
required within the incident management process are:

ITIL framework, change
management –
According to the Whitepapers on the BNET Business Network, the
IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) framework offers IT organizations a
methodology to achieve that goal by linking business perspectives with
IT infrastructure management. Service Level Management (SLM) is one of
several disciplines outlined by ITIL. ITIL advocates adoption of Service
Level Agreements (SLAs), which have written agreements between business
units and IT suppliers. The agreement documents have agreed upon levels
of service... The goal of service level management, therefore, is to
maintain and improve service quality as defined in the SLA.

Defining
IT Portfolio Management
-
According to the
business cases through the Silicon.com site, IT investments are now the
norm rather than the exception. However, projects are still considered
individually as discrete investments. Likewise, there is often a
segmentation between new application spending, the realm of project
portfolio management (PPM), existing application maintenance, the realm
of application portfolio management (APM), and infrastructure
investment. As of yet, few, if any, organizations are looking
holistically at the entire IT budget as a unified suite of investments.
IT organizations can apply many of the same tools the financial
community uses to build and manage financial portfolios to maximize
benefits, mitigate risks, and better meet the needs of its constituent
customers. Although the science of IT portfolio management is in its
infancy, understanding the concepts and laying the groundwork now will
allow for quicker adoption later as the tools and tenets become better
defined over the coming years. The ultimate goal is delivering to the
organization predictable and higher returns at the appropriate level of
risk. Following, Forrester lays out the basic concepts and definition of
IT portfolio management, its relationship to other management processes,
and Forrester's research agenda for coverage of these areas.

Systems engineering
- is an interdisciplinary
process that ensures that the customer's needs are satisfied throughout
a system's entire life cycle. This process is comprised of the following
seven tasks.

State
the problem. Stating the
problem is the most important systems engineering task. It entails
identifying customers, understanding customer needs, establishing
the need for change, discovering requirements and defining system
functions.

Investigate
alternatives.
Alternatives are investigated and evaluated based on performance,
cost and risk.

Integrate.
Integration means designing interfaces and bringing system elements
together so they work as a whole. This requires extensive
communication and coordination.

Launch
the system. Launching
the system means running the system and producing outputs -- making
the system do what it was intended to do.

Assess
performance. Performance
is assessed using evaluation criteria, technical performance
measures and measures -- measurement is the key. If you cannot
measure it, you cannot control it. If you cannot control it, you
cannot improve it.

Re-evaluation.
Re-evaluation should be a continual and iterative process with many
parallel loops.

Large
Project Management – Modern business is said to be in
a "project age." This "age" involves the creation, management and
delivery of projects. Business projects, product projects, service
projects, government projects. Project Management is the management of
projects. The precise definition of a project and the management
processes is difficult without first establishing a context and a
business domain.

As well the "normative" approaches are
being challenged by heuristic and participative approaches. These
challenges bring new and important ideas to the domain of project
management. This also brings out diversions to the established
definitions and practices, through attempts to be innovative or replace
the thread bare processes that have failed us in the past. In some cases
the challengers have not "done their homework" or desire to "skip to the
end" with new and innovative approaches without first having verified
that they are appropriate to the domain and context or that they
actually work in real worlds situations.

Control Engineering
Technology Discipline- Generated power is
used to drive motors, machines, electrical drives and power electronics.
The need is great for expert generation, transmission and distribution
engineers, a range of different professionals involved in the field of
power and control engineering. The discipline is concerned with power
and the control systems prevalent and used in relation to power.

Logistics
- (business definition)
Logistics is defined as a business planning framework for the management
of material, service, information and capital flows. It includes the
increasingly complex information, communication and control systems
required in today's business environment. -- (Logistix Partners Oy,
Helsinki, FI, 1996)

Logistics
- (military definition) The science of planning and carrying out
the movement and maintenance of forces.... those aspects of military
operations that deal with the design and development, acquisition,
storage, movement, distribution, maintenance, evacuation and disposition
of material; movement, evacuation, and hospitalization of personnel;
acquisition of construction, maintenance, operation and disposition of
facilities; and acquisition of furnishing of services. -- (JCS Pub 1-02
excerpt)

Logistics
- The procurement, maintenance, distribution, and replacement of
personnel and materiel.

Information Technology
- Information
technology (IT) has recently emerged as a separate academic discipline.
The IT discipline is related to, but distinct from, computer science,
information systems, and software engineering. Given this relationship
to existing computing programs, one should expect the driving factors
that have energized the emergence of the IT discipline to have some
impact on the previously existing programs as well. In this paper we
report some experiences at three institutions that illustrate some of
the ways the new IT discipline has influenced curricular choices. After
examining these three cases, we suggest that they may help frame the
curricular questions that many institutions will consider as they assess
the impact of the emerging discipline of IT on their programs.

Configuration Management (CM) - in this context is defined as
the specification, identification, recording, and reporting of
Information Technology components, including their versions and
relationships throughout the lifecycle of the configuration items.

Configuration Change Management
- This discipline spans the entire lifecycle. Every other discipline
relies upon the configuration and change management discipline to
maintain a consistent, up-to-date, set of work products -- and to
prioritize and track changes to those work products -- throughout
the lifecycle; or

Configuration and change management
- Performed by everyone on the development team. Because of the
importance and pervasiveness of this discipline, configuration and
change management guidance is associated with tasks and work
products in all other disciplines.

This article defines the
relationship between configuration management and engineering change
control. The two functions are synonymous when a change is
occurring. This article also accounts for what calls for a change
to occur.

Configuration items or
CIs –
According to IBM, A
configuration item (CI) is any component of an information
technology infrastructure that is under the control of configuration
management. Configuration items (CIs) can be individually managed
and versioned, to be contained units for the purposes of
identification and change control. Identification of
configuration items usually occurs, by names, version numbers, and
other attributes. The lowest level CI is usually the smallest unit
changed independently of other components. CIs vary in complexity,
size, and type. They can range from an entire service, which may
consist of hardware, software, and documentation to a single program
module or a minor hardware component. A CI can also be one of the
following levels:

Composite CI

Root CI

Contained CI

Most CI’s occur due to an issue
with a service, software, or piece of hardware that has had a
failure and needs immediate change control to fix the problem.
Server restoration depends on software versions. Out of date
software versions require updates.

Administering
CIs
- Creation and implementation of software tools in system management
help track and administer CI’s. According to IBM, this product
provides comprehensive functionality for creating configuration
items (CIs) and registering the items to the Configuration
Management Database (CMDB). You can view and update CI properties,
and you can delete a CI from the CMDB. You can also administer CI
reports. The way that IBM uses this tool is through the following
Steps:

Searching for
configuration items
- Use this procedure to search for configuration items (CIs).
You would want to perform a search to see what CIs are in the
Configuration Management Database (CMDB) and to find CIs that
you want to perform other tasks on. For example, if you want to
view or update configuration item (CI) properties, delete a CI,
create CI relationships, or perform other CI related tasks, you
can search for CIs that meet certain criteria to include in
those tasks.

Creating
configuration items
- Use this procedure to create a configuration item (CI).
Creating CIs is one of the primary tasks in using IBM®
Change and Configuration Management database. You can create CIs
of a wide variety of types. CIs are stored in the Configuration
Management Database (CMDB).

Creating
contained configuration items
- Use this procedure to create a contained configuration item
(CI). Creating CIs is one of the primary tasks in using IBM
Change and Configuration Management database. You can create CIs
of a wide variety of types. CIs are stored in the Configuration
Management Database (CMDB).

Adding existing
configuration items
- Use this procedure to add existing configuration items (CIs)
to other CIs. CIs are stored in the Configuration Management
Database (CMDB).

Updating
configuration item properties
- Use this
procedure to update configuration item (CI) properties. Updates
to CI properties are necessary to keep the information in the
Configuration Management database (CMDB) correct. For example,
the version or the CI owner may change which will required the
CI properties to be
updated.

Business Intelligence -
The primary objective of
the Change Management process is to ensure that standardized methods and
procedures are used for efficient and prompt handling of all changes, in
order to minimize the impact of change-related incidents upon service
quality, and consequently to improve the day-to-day operations of the
organization.

Knowledge management -
is a rapidly developing area within which it is essential that the
information and library professions realize they have a critical role.
The rate of change prompted by the advent of knowledge management is
such that we are in clear danger of being left out as the framework of
career opportunities develops and changes over the next few years.

Industrial Engineering
- offers
the most wide-ranging array of opportunities in terms of employment, and
it is distinguished by its flexibility. While other engineering
disciplines tend to apply skills to very specific areas, Industrial
Engineers may be found working everywhere: from traditional
manufacturing companies to airlines, from distribution companies to
financial institutions, from major medical establishments to consulting
companies, from high-tech corporations to companies in the food
industry.

Project Portfolio
Management - PPM is about ensuring
you have a group of projects focused on taking the business somewhere
they want to go. It is about being able to respond quickly to changes in
the environment. It is about short projects that give quick wins. It is
about the business setting direction and then creating a series of steps
to get there. The benefits it brings the business are:

Faster
response to changing conditions

More
quick wins

Not
having minor projects escalate into major undertakings

Focus on
what will achieve the initiative rather than on the project itself

IT
responsibilities centered on one business area rather than trying to
compromise across several

Blending
business and IT projects and treating both as contributors to the
same goal

Portfolios can be constantly reviewed and altered if necessary to
produce the highest returns based on changing situations

Management sees the projects as groups of activities contributing to
an initiative. They are not a series of unrelated work.

Dependencies are easier to identify. If we don't upgrade these
servers, we can't run the new software. Both are part of the same
initiative.

Portfolio Management - Portfolio Management addresses the
processes, practices, and specific activities to perform continuous
and consistent evaluation, prioritization, budgeting, and selection
of investments that provide the greatest value and contribution to
the strategic interest of the organization. Through portfolio
management, an organization can explicitly assess the tradeoffs
among competing investment opportunities in terms of their benefit,
costs, and risks.

Just-In-Timeis a phrase that
originated at Toyota. Originally, it described how material should
be processed and moved in order to arrive "Just in Time" for the
next operation. Common usage at Toyota extended the phrase to mean
the entire complex of techniques being developed by Shingo, Ohno and
Eiji Toyoda. As knowledge of the system began to spread, "Just in
Time," as a phrase spread with it.

Research shows numerous disciplines
involved in change management. In fact, not one function or discipline
in any organization approaching change will not be impacted by the
change. The interdependent nature of organizations make it imperative
that leadership gets all aspects of an organization involved in change
management at the earliest possible time. Therefore, all of the
disciplines outlined in this paper are an important part of change
management.